Dr. David Panton

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Dr. David Panton

Dr. David Panton has 18 years of investment banking and private equity experience and has sourced, structured, managed, and/or invested in over 20 lower middle market transactions with a total enterprise value of over $5.0 billion. He started his career as an Associate in the Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) group at Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York focused on Latin America and the Caribbean. In 1998, he co-founded and became managing partner of the Caribbean Investment Fund, a $50 million private equity firm in Kingston, Jamaica. In 2004, David became a vice president of Mellon Ventures, the $1.4 billion private equity firm arm of Mellon Financial. In 2007, he co-founded and was a partner of Navigation Capital Partners, a $350 million private equity firm in Atlanta, where he remains a shareholder.

David is an Adjunct Professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, where he teaches a course in private equity investing. He is also the Chairman of the Jamaica-Atlanta Chamber of Commerce; a member of the Board of Trustees of Holy Innocent’s Episcopal School in Atlanta, GA; and a director of the Carlos Museum at Emory.

David is a member of Tiger 21, Young Presidents Organization (YPO), and Leadership Atlanta (Class of 2012). He was named by Buyouts Magazine as “One of Eight Buyout Pros Under 40 to Watch” and by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of the “40 Under 40” Rising Stars.

He received a D.Phil. in Management Studies from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar; a J.D. from Harvard Law School (with honors), where he was elected President of the Harvard Law Review; and an A.B. in Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University (with high honors). He also holds a Masters Professional Director Certification from the American College of Corporate Directors, a public company director credentialing organization.

David was born and raised in Jamaica, where he served as a Senator in the Upper House of Parliament. He is the proud father of two sons, Alexander and Ailan.